You reprinted the Iowa Capital Dispatch’s attack on the Marshalltown Library. The Dispatch article avoided the real issue: whether The Epoch Times should be in the Library. Instead, the Dispatch (and the T-R, by its reprint without comment) avoid the issue and blame the victim of ongoing harassment. You blame the Library for its determination that The Epoch Times is not a responsible source for news, but you don’t evaluate whether the decision was correct.

The Dispatch recounts that the Library did a “deep dive” on The Epoch Times before deciding it was not appropriate for the Library. Everyone interested in this issue should do a “deep dive” on The Epoch Times before suggesting that the Library is involved in nefarious censorship.

Go to FactCheck.org and run a search on The Epoch Times. How many false and misleading articles should it take to conclude that The Epoch Times is long on conspiracy theories and short on journalistic integrity?

All things being equal, would the Dispatch or the Times-Republican recommend The Epoch Times to readers as a fact based, non-biased publication? As a source for reliable news? As a source for reliable science? And would the publications simply ignore the fact that The Epoch Times is, at bottom, part of an evangelization effort by a religion?

If the Library accepts The Epoch Times, the Library implicitly approves of and helps evangelize for that religion. The state — the Library — is not supposed to do that. The First Amendment — the same constitutional provision which guarantees freedom of the press — says so. Let’s champion both parts of the First Amendment.

The Library also determined that it does not need to subscribe to a gun magazine. Both the Dispatch and the Times-Republican should do another “deep dive.” Review the facts of “mass shootings” in the United States and then conclude that a gun magazine would make the Library a better place for the city of Marshalltown and improve our quality of life.

Begin your “deep dive” by visiting the link below. It only covers those shootings in which at least four people were killed or injured and only those in 2023. And it is only current on the day visited. It will certainly be longer if you visit it next week — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023.

Be responsible. Do your own deep dives, and quit blaming the victim.